Import Export Business

This Import Export Business blog is dedicated to providing you with news, information and resources about the business of international trade. You will find the information useful to both business owners who wish to begin exporting or expand their export markets and new entrepreneurs seeking the basics of how to get started.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Here are a few key questions to consider when thinking aboutstarting an importing business to help you learn if you are ready:

1. How well are the products selling that you are consideringimporting?

2. Do you have a market already established for thoseproducts?

3. If you do not have a market, i.e., buyers, how are yougoing to get those buyers to first learn about your products,then buy those products?

4. Do you have the expertise to deal with the foreignlanguages of the countries you are thinking about importingfrom?

5. How will you pay or finance for those products?

6. Are your trusting enough (or naive enough) to send yourfunds to a company you found on the Internet simply becausethey have a nice looking web site and best of all, the lowestprices you have found yet?

7. Have you ever heard of the term "due diligence" and doyou know how to perform it on potential suppliers?

8. Have you ever sold anything? Products or services viaany method of marketing?

The above list are just a few of the questions you mustanswer to yourself when considering the start of just aboutany business, but especially one that requires you sendyour hard earned funds to someone in another country.

Consider this post a reality check. If some of the thingsin this post upset you, good. I would rather give you areality check before it costs you any serious money.

Most people have more dream than they have experience orwillpower. They want the fast track to guaranteed successand do not want to face the realities of business thatdo not match their dreams.

If you have ever considered starting an import business,you better have solid answers to the above questions.

The primary one - who are you going to sell to? Second,do you have "any" business experience??

When someone calls me on the phone asking about startingtheir own importing business, the first questions I askare those listed above.

Most answer that they do not have any business experienceor if they do, it does not involve the actual sale of theproducts they are thinking about importing.

The recommendation I give them in such instances is asfollows:

If you do not have any experience and/or you do butyou do not have an established market - then start sellingstuff on eBay.

By stuff I mean the excess things you have personallyaccumulated, that same stuff owned by your relatives andfriends.

Selling "stuff" like this teaches you the "how to" ofthe largest marketplace in the world - eBay.

It also gives you an opportunity to experience the "thrills"of doing business, such as

Experiencing a sale or no sale

Researching how to price your products (based on previoussales of the same or similar products)

Setting up a no cost merchant account with eBay's paypalservice and joyously paying fees to both paypal and eBay.

Dealing with shipping and handling.

Dealing with customers, communications - customer serviceif they are not happy with the "stuff" because you did notwrite a thorough description or provide a photo that didnot detail every nook and cranny of the stuff.

Dealing with non-paying customers.

Not trying to scare you away from your dreams but simplygiving you a path to learn from that does not cost youa lot of out of pocket funds.

Now for some resources that my experience and researchover the past 7-8 years has discovered to be the BESTI personally have found -

If after reading the above you realize that you are"not ready for prime time" in starting your own importingbusiness, then this first resource is a place you shouldvisit and take advantage of "every FREE resource" theyoffer to help you decide if their paid service wouldhelp you launch your business.

-- just enter the name of the product(s) in the searchengine space, submit and wait for the results - thesearch results will bring up various listings, onewill say "Import Buys" that is the one to focus on -see the number out to the right that is underlined,that is the number of suppliers they have for the itemyou searched for - click on that number to expand andsee further details.

If you see that their service would be beneficial to you,then get it - if you are not finding enough suppliers tomake it worthwhile then two things - 1) do not get theirpaid service or 2) realize that maybe there is a reasonfor not finding the product(s) and change the name orlearn from this that maybe you cannot sell that productbecause it has minimum requirements that you would notbe able to handle or there are exclusive distributionrights that simply exclude others from selling it.

A bit of advice on products you are thinking about selling -don't get so fixated on one or two products that youspend all your time seeking to find a supplier for it.

Understand that MOST of the BIG BRAND NAME productshave "EXCLUSIVE" distribution agreements and you areNOT going to the attention of a manufacturer since youare just getting started. Once you have a marketbase established, then you 'may' be able to get themto answer your phone calls, but you better have ahuge market base.

Now once you have that market base established and youfeel financially successful enough to purchase a muchlarger (maybe container load) of a product, then it istime to beging considering Importing it yourself.

This is when you are ready for our Importing courseand should get it so you understand all the aspectsof importing before you even make your first foreigninquiry. Here is a link to our course:How To Start An Importing Business Course

Last, but certainly not least, getting back to sellingon eBay - I am going to give you the link to our webpage where you may download, for free, an ebook thatI purchased a few years ago and found to be extremelyhelpful when I made my first foray onto eBay to sellsome of the "too much" stuff I had accumulated overmy lifetime. Go visit and download at:Free Ebay Selling Auction Book

Now the most IMPORTANT thing that selling on eBayprovides you is learning how to take ACTION! Beyonddreaming about starting a business, by actually selling(or attempting to sell) your first "stuff" on eBay,it causes you to take that ALL IMPORTANT FIRST STEP -ACTION.

This brings me to close this post with something Iread recently that Walt Disney once said - it appliesto you feeling overwhelmed with all of the strategiesyou want to try - some people (maybe you) get socompletely overwhelmed that they put off gettingstarted for far too long.

Walt Disney put it simply like this:

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."Walter Disney

About Me

Started Coble International in 1988 with the express purpose of providing Export Import marketing assistance to manufacturers and providing B2B products and services to the global B2B community. Our business expanded exponentially in the late 1990's when we launched our website ImportExportHelp.com. The Internet was and continues to be the best marketing tool for ALL businesses, anywhere in the world. The Import Export business training courses we once offered have been used by community colleges, busineses and individuals around the world and our B2B marketing databases have been used by companies in 70 countries to expand their markets.